1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a dental implant, and more particularly, to a dental implant which is embedded into an edentulous site of the jawbone to function as a substitute for a lost tooth.
2. Background of the Related Art
A study on methods for finding a substitute for a tooth that is lost due to various reasons has been continued in dentistry. Clinical testing for finding the methods has been actively conducted as well. Among the methods, the most widely used method is to use a crown or a bridge as an artificial substitute for the lost tooth with the help of adjacent teeth, or to use a partial denture or a complete denture as the artificial substitute for the lost tooth with the help of both the adjacent teeth and gums(jawbone).
The above crown or bridge is disadvantageous in that the adjacent healthy teeth should be pulled out, and if there are lots of lost teeth, the crown or bridge has a limitation in functioning as the artificial substitute for the lost teeth and bearing occlusive pressure. Additionally, it is said to be inconvenient to use and store.
There has recently been great technical development in dentistry. The modern technology has finally developed an artificial tooth, namely implant, made of titanium that is biocompatible and thus doesn't cause any physiologic disorder even though it is attached to a human body for a long period of time.
Most conventional dental implants, as shown in FIG. 1, include a fixture 2 having a screw part 1, and an abutment 3 integrally formed with the upper end of the fixture, such that the fixture 2 and the abutment 3 are fixedly secured to each other by means of a screw 4.
The dental implant 10 constructed as above couples the fixture 2 and the abutment 3 by means of the general screw 4, whereby during an external impact, the screw 4 often comes loose and the screw 4 may be damaged due to a serious impact.
Furthermore, the connection between the fixture and the abutment by the screw should be checked periodically, which is very inconvenient and annoying for a patient as well as a dentist. Moreover, a considerable amount of cost for checking the connection is incurred.